When you create a school URL, SAML settings are set to active. You can start the SAML setup process by clicking “setup”, as shown in the screenshot below.
1. Download Wordsmyth SAML metadata
In the setup section, click the metadata link to get access to Wordmsyth SAML metadata.
The XML file will open in a separate tab. Just send this information to your SAML administrator to create “application” for your school URL.
2. Use Wordsmyth SAML metadata to create a special “application” on your site.
Using this information, the SAML service administrator should create special “Application” on your site. The Metadata file for the “Application” contains all necessary parameters to set up the settings. These parameters are:
- Entity ID
- Sign On Service Url
- Log Out Service Url (optional)
- X509cert
- Name Id Format
3. Use the application metadata on your site to complete settings on Wordsmyth
The metadata from the application on your site should be specified in our SAML settings form to make the integration work.
4. User information XML attributes
Other parameters are necessary to support information extraction from SAML XML files which are generated after the integration is implemented. In operation, when the SAML XML exchange occurs, the “saml:AttributeStatement” section is sent to our program. For example:
<saml:AttributeStatement>
<saml:Attribute Name=”givenname”
NameFormat=”urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:basic”>
<saml:AttributeValue>Hazel</saml:AttributeValue>
</saml:Attribute>
<saml:Attribute Name=”surname”
NameFormat=”urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:basic”>
<saml:AttributeValue>Googe</saml:AttributeValue>
</saml:Attribute>
<saml:Attribute Name=”UserType”
NameFormat=”urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:basic”>
<saml:AttributeValue>Student</saml:AttributeValue>
</saml:Attribute>
</saml:AttributeStatement>
The set of attributes and their names can be different depending on the SAML service provider. But our application require “User Name” and “User Type” information to distinguish the student and teacher user roles. Therefore some special fields are added for the particular attribute values used by the SAML provider (to send us the User Name and User Type information).
These fields are:
- Given Name SAML Attribute – the example above contains “givenname” (but “first name” may be used)
- Sur Name Attribute – the example above contains “surname” (but “last name” may be used. (
- One of these 2 fields can be omitted
- User Type Attribute – contains “UserType”
- User Type Student Value – contains “Student”
- User Type Teacher Value – contains “Teacher”
Additional settings and control for your convenience
- Login is required – if ON then access to School URL for users who are not logged in is impossible
- Status: Active/Inactive – If “Inactive” then SAML integration is Off, and not used. It can be used for testing, to avoid removing all long parameters, but to just temporarily disable integration.
That’s all the parameters that are used in our page for SAML integration. Click “Save” to complete the setup. If you still have questions, please contact us at support@wordmsyth.net.